The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Petunia plant, botanically known as Petuniaxc3x97hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name MP4.
The new Petunia is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, Australia. The objective of the breeding program is to create cascading Petunias with numerous small flowers with attractive flower colors. The new Petunia originated from a cross made by the Inventor in 1998 of a proprietary Petunia selection identified as X98.31 as the female, or seed parent, with a proprietary Petunia selection identified as PJ39 as the male, or pollen parent. The new Petunia was selected as a single plant from the resulting progeny by the Inventor in October, 1999, in Cobbitty, New South Wales, Australia, on the basis of its cascading habit and numerous purple-colored flowers.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings taken in Cobbitty, New South Wales, Australia since October, 1999 has shown that the unique features of this new Petunia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
Plants of the cultivar MP4 have not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature, light intensity, daylength, and fertilizer rate without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98MP4xe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98MP4xe2x80x99 as a new and distinct cultivar:
1. Compact, uniform cascading and outwardly spreading plant habit.
2. Freely and continuous branching.
3. Small leaves.
4. Numerous small dark purple-colored flowers with very dark purple-colored throat and venation.
Plants of the new Petunia differ from the female parent in flower color as plants of the female parent have pink-colored flowers. Plants of the new Petunia differ from the male parent in flower size and color as plants of the male parent have larger and lighter purple-colored flowers. Plants of the new Petunia differ from its sibling cultivar, MP7, U.S. Plant Patent application Ser. No. 09/832,036, filed concurrently, primarily in flower color as plants of xe2x80x98MP7xe2x80x99 have lavender pink-colored flowers.